The Beck Lecture Series starts off its fall semester by presenting a poetry reading by poet and author Jay Hopler at 8 p.m. on Tuesday (Sept. 18) in Barney-Davis Hall Board Room. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Hopler was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1970 and has earned degrees from New York University, The Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, The Iowa Writers' Workshop and Purdue University, where he earned his doctorate in American Studies.

Poet Jay Hopler

Hopler's poems, essays and reviews have appeared in The Iowa Review, The Journal, The Kenyon Review, Mid-American Review, The New Yorker, Pleiades, and Xantippe. He has received many awards for his work such as the Great Lakes College Association Prize.

"Green Squall" (Yale University Press, 2006), Hopler's first book, was chosen by Louise Glueck as the winner of the 2005 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. Julie Platt writing in Mid-American Review called "Green Squall" "pure fire" and Publishers Weekly hailed the debut collection as "truly stunning."

His first scholarly publication "The Killing Spirit: An Anthology of Murder-for-Hire," was published by Overlook Press in 1996. The Midwest Book Review called "The Killing Spirit" "a seminal literary anthology and riveting reading" and it received a "star rating" in Book News.

Hopler is currently at work on "The Alligator," his second book of poems, and on "Roll Call of the Boneyard Heavies," a literary/cultural history of the American murder narrative. He is an assistant professor of creative writing/poetry at the University of South Florida.

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Calendar Listing:

CALENDAR LISTING: Denison University, Granville -- The Beck Lecture Series presents poetry reading by poet and author Jay Hopler; 8 p.m., Tuesday (Sept.18), in Barney-Davis Hall Board Room. Free and open to the public. Call (740) 587-6207 to confirm information.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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